Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/748

With indomitable courage he fought his gun alone until the enemy were upon him, and he fell severely wounded. In the confusion he managed to hide himself in a mountain thicket until the Federal troops were withdrawn, when he obtained shelter with a sympathetic mountaineer. Here he was cared for until his recovery, when he attempted, disguised as a herder, to make his way through the Federal lines. He was successful until he had reached the last picket post, when an inquisitive soldier noticed that his boots were of a kind unusual among the natives, and being pulled off, they revealed his name. The latter was well known, as there had been much speculation regarding his mysterious disappearance from the battlefield, and he was promptly sent as a prisoner to Federal headquarters. Upon his return to the service, he was promoted major, Twentieth battalion Virginia artillery, and was offered the commission of brigadier-general, which he declined. He subsequently served in the ordnance bureau at Richmond.